Mortgage Customer Satisfaction Surges, J.D. Power Reports
(Illustration credit: Blake Wheeler Via Unsplash)
J.D. Power, Troy, Mich., says mortgage lenders are adopting a more consultative, advisory-style engagement with customers, “[and] that shift is paying off in the form of significantly higher customer satisfaction scores, improved trust and increased levels of brand loyalty.”
“Mortgage lenders have come to recognize that the more educated their customers are about the details of their mortgage products, the more loyal and lucrative their relationships become,” said Bruce Gehrke, senior director of wealth and lending intelligence at J.D. Power. “The highest-ranked lenders in today’s market aren’t just those with the best rates, they’re the ones that have perfected hybrid engagement.”
Gehrke noted that by blending high-touch advisor relationships with intelligent digital infrastructure, “leading lenders are transforming what used to be a transactional, document-focused ordeal into a consultative partnership.”
J.D. Power released its annual U.S. Mortgage Origination Satisfaction Study Wednesday. Some key findings include:
Overall satisfaction rises sharply: Overall customer satisfaction with mortgage lenders is 760 (on a 1,000-point scale), up 33 points from a year ago when mortgage customer satisfaction was in decline. “In the past year, mortgage lenders have made significant strides in customer communication, reliability and accountability and use of innovative technologies to engage with customers,” the report said.
Lenders build loyalty with advisory-style approach: Mortgage lenders receive top scores from a majority (79%) of their customers for providing useful guidance or advice, up from 76% in 2024, 70% in 2023 and 69% in 2022. Additionally, customers of mortgage lenders that receive top scores for delivering useful guidance are 2.3 times more likely to say they “definitely will” choose the same lender for future loans.
Early engagement drives higher satisfaction: Overall satisfaction is 32 points higher when lenders connect with customers at the beginning of their home-buying journey, before they start actively shopping, compared with satisfaction when engagement begins later in the journey. Satisfaction drops by 64 points when lenders first engage at the mortgage application stage.
Borrowers are open to AI involvement in lending process: Slightly more than half (54%) of customers say they are “completely comfortable” with their lenders using AI in the mortgage origination process and another 31% say they are “partially comfortable” with the use of AI. However, customers also want to know how the technology is being used; 71% say it is very important for their lender to inform them when they are using AI.
Study Ranking
Citi ranked highest in J.D. Power’s mortgage origination satisfaction metric with a score of 802. Bank of America ranked second at 792 and Citizens ranked third with 787.
The Mortgage Origination Satisfaction Study measures overall customer satisfaction based on performance in six factors: communication; digital channels; level of trust; loan offering meets my needs; made it easy to do business with; and people.
